Josephoartigasia

Common card · No. 290979

Josephoartigasia is an extinct genus of enormous dinomyid rodent from the Early Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of Uruguay. Its closest living relative is the pacarana. Josephoartigasia is named after Uruguayan national hero José Artigas. It contains two species: J. magna, described in 1966 based on a left mandible, and J. monesi, described in 2008 based on a nearly complete skull. Both are reported from the San José Member of the Raigón Formation by the Barrancas de San Gregorio along Kiyú beach. The skull of J. monesi measures 53 cm (1 ft 9 in), similar to a beef cow skull, equating to a full body length of 262.8 cm (8 ft 7 in)—though this is likely an overestimate—and a weight of about 480–500 kg (1,060–1,100 lb). This makes J. monesi the biggest rodent ever discovered. It was much larger than J. magna, giant hutia or the largest living rodent, the capybara, which averages 60 kg (130 lb). J. monesi also had a massive bite force of approximately 1,400 N (310 lbf) at the incisors (on par...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Andres Rinderknecht, CC BY 4.0